HYDERABAD : When actress Lakshmi Manchu came out with her own Youtube channel along with her six-year-old daughter Nirvana for Sankranthi, around January 15, it was a hushed affair. But the views for her channel Chitti Chilakamma skyrocketed within a week and it became popular with absolutely no advertisement. While one might assume it to be a Youtube channel for kids if they go by the name, the videos actually target new parents and present the difficulties of upbringing children in a comical way. “When a woman is pregnant, the ent i re family celebrates a new arr i v a l.
But once the baby is born, it becomes the mother’s responsibility entirely and there is no manual for the right way of upbringing children. I had several questions about upbri n ging af t e r Ni rvana was born and I did a lot of research and most of my knowledge came from Youtube channels and I wanted to share it,” says the Gundello Godaari actress. She recalls how on one weekend she discussed the idea with her friend Sowmya who had an M.Sc in child psychology and development.
“We decided to shoot a few episodes and release them to gauge the response from audience. Luckily Nirvana is also in that age where she can understand and perform in front of a camera and it all came together perfectly and we decided to make it for the Telugu crowd in a fun and entertaining way,” she says. The response to the videos is visibly positive and the comment sections are filled with parents posing questions and requests about child upbringing.
“We get a lot of ideas for the videos from the audience. After brainstorming with Sowmya and the ChaiBisket team we finalise the content. We make sure that the content is entertaining and gripping so that we could grab the attention of parents as well as kids,” says the talk show host. Some of the most common concerns like how to punish kids in a way that doesn’t hurt them and how to tackle their addiction to m o b i l e s i s e x - plained in a fun and knowledgeable way by the actress while her daughter Nirvana seems to be quite comfortable and p a s s i o n ate a r o u n d t h e c amer a .
“ I l i k e shooting with Amma and I am not scared to be in front of the camera. It is a lot of fun,” says the six-year-old. From teaching shlokas to good habits to kids and answering the general questions about c h i l d u p b r i n g i n g, C h i t t i Chilakamma, which releases a video every Saturday has it all. So it does not come as a surprise that the channel has already crossed 80,000 subscribers under a month and has clocked in 2,805,791 views so far in about a month.